Top positive review

A great no brainer of a video game film. Captures all the game aspects perfectly like the one line plot, wonderful locations and lots of girls in not a lot which seems to be the games main selling point. As a turn off and tune in form of entertainment this is better than most.

Top critical review

No, not the Dennis Quaid film or even the Edmond O'Brien one but some rubbish about a martial arts tournament based on a computer game. Sub-Enter The Dragon/Game of Death stuff as Kasumi (Devon Aoki) seeks the person responsible for her brothers 'death'. Starring a slumming (or desperate) Eric Roberts, who's better than the material here, it has the preposterous fight sequences you associate with games like Tekken or films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. That it is produced by Paul W S Anderson will surprise no-one who has watched it - it has all his hallmarks: a negligible plot and lots of mind-numbing action sequences. It's entertaining enough in it's own moronic way but you'll have forgotten all about it half an hour after you've seen it. Worth watching for the incredible bikini bodies on display, especially Jaime Pressly and Holly Valance ... and at less than an hour and a half it doesn't outstay it's welcome... just.

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Once more irrelevant studio executives managed to destroy an original franshise.DOA the movie a a title that has nothing in common with the game apart from the title in the box.What is most irritating is that asian game characters are played by non-asian actors, I simply wasted my pounds buying the original DVD, and obviously I cannot get a refund for this rip-off

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This is one of the best martial arts and fighting film based on a videogame i've ever watched, each character is given an in-depth viewing in the way they fighting and how they live, this is well worth buying 100% perfect for a fan of doa dead or alive videogames

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As much as I enjoy playing the Dead or Alive video games (Dimensions on the Nintendo 3DS is still my favourite outing), I just couldn’t locate the same level of enthusiasm when watching this 2006 movie. Believe me, I searched everywhere for it: the characters; the scenery; the dialogue…even inside Christie’s bra. Nowhere to be seen.

The plot: A fighting tournament is being held on a luxury island with the grand prize being $10 million dollars in cash. Run by Victor Donovan (played by Eric Roberts with a dodgy grey “Rachel” haircut), the best DOA fighters from around the world gather for this tournament, including Bass Armstrong (former WWE and WCW wrestler, Kevin Nash). However, the main characters in this movie are three attractive ladies with differing motives.

Tina Armstrong (Jaime Pressley) is a pro wrestler, and daughter of Bass, who wants to prove that she is tough and can fight for real (it’s not too dissimilar to Johnny Cage’s scenario in the Mortal Kombat movie); Kasumi (Devon Aoki) is the princess of a ninja clan who is investigating the disappearance of her brother who was reported to have been killed at the last DOA get together; and Christie (former Neighbours actress, Holly Valance) is a sexy master thief who just fancies a bit more dosh. The trio end up forming a questionable alliance as they explore the real reasons for their tournament invitations.

As one should expect from an action movie the...uh, action…is fast paced. There are plenty of fights to engage and feast upon, and there’s never a feeling of sluggishness during the 83-minute movie running time. This will no doubt please die-hard DOA fans, although for the sake of being nit-picky they’re bound to question why Helena here is American as opposed to her French video game counterpart. The ladies here are, admittedly, very attractive as well. They’ll get the pulses racing for large portions of the male audience, especially during the beach volleyball scene.

However, the movie on the whole feels like a bit of a rush job. The writers and producers tried to fit in as much fighting time in as they could for all the DOA characters, but even then some of them are still underused. Bass, in particular, should have had a stronger part in the plot given that he is Tina’s father, and there’s not even a mention of him at the finale. No doubt the fault lies in the short running time, and another 10-15 minutes of action would most likely have fixed this problem.

Some of the casting is questionable as well. Valance (or Candy; I can’t be sure these days) is knockout beautiful, especially in her introductory hotel scene, but the English accent is unconvincing and at times annoying. Meanwhile Eric Roberts is just a poor villain all round. He looks like the skinny kid on the playground who thinks he’s tough and can beat up anybody, only to wail like a tortured dolphin whenever he receives a timid slap on the wrist.

On a slightly more positive note, the DVD extras here are reasonable. They include a 20+ minute making-of documentary and some deleted scenes. Overall though, DOA lacks punch (no pun intended this time) to be a movie worth regular viewing. It’s certainly not the worst I’ve ever viewed, but it’s definitely more suited to the DOA fanatics.

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Is what this film should be called and funnily enough another reviewer had the same thought as myself. I'm going to be up front and say the only real reason you are going to watch this film is for Holly Valance and the other extremely gorgeous female co-stars. From that point of view this film is a success with so many hot scantily clad images it's hard not to please.

But if you're actually looking for quality action and especially martial-arts action go look elsewhere. A combination of wirework, hot pretty girls who can't fight and virtually no decent fight sequences on top of a fairly thin plot will leave you rather disappointed... Unless the triple combo of fit young things is enough to carry the movie.

For me while the main stars were easy on the eyes the lack of quality action left me thinking how much better this movie could have been with some real on screen martial-arts talent. Still wouldn't have been a masterpiece but at least would have been more satisfying.

My advice is watch it on TV and buy something better from Amazon.

REALLY A 2 STAR FILM but an extra half star for the hot female "talent" 5/10 or 2.5/5